Nicaraguan investigative journalist receives death threats

New York, February 23, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about death threats against Nicaraguan investigative reporter Luis Galeano in the lead-up to the publication of a series of articles on official corruption.

Galeano and his colleague José Adán
Silva, reporters with the Managua-based daily El Nuevo Diario, had been investigating allegations of embezzlement
within Nicaragua's Supreme Electoral Council, El Nuevo Diario reported. On Saturday,
two days before the paper published the first article in a series of
investigative reports, Galeano received a call from an unknown number on his
cell phone telling him that he had "72 hours to live" if the story went to
press, according to news reports and CPJ interviews. The death threat was later
reiterated in an anonymous letter addressed to Galeano and sent to the
newspaper.

Galeano reported the threats to the
national police, Carlos Larios, a reporter with El Nuevo Diario, told CPJ. Galeano and El Nuevo Diario Editor Francisco Chamorro also reported the threats
to the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), according to news reports.
Galeano has requested police protection, he told CPJ.

"We call on Nicaraguan authorities to
conduct a speedy and thorough investigation of these disturbing threats against
Luis Galeano,"CPJ
Senior Americas Program Coordinator Carlos Lauría. "The Nicaraguan
authorities must grant Galeano's request for protection."

In January, after publishing an
investigative report on alleged fraud in the national Revenue Office, Galeano
was warned by the director
of the public office that "something is going to happen to the journalists that
have written on this topic." The newspaper accused the government of blocking
the paper's access to imported printing paper through customs in reprisal for
its reporting on official corruption, according to local news reports.

A CPJ special report published in
2009 found that President Daniel Ortega's government has maintained a hostile
and antagonistic relationship with the private press. CPJ's research shows that
journalists in Nicaragua have been subjected to legal harassment, smear
campaigns, and manipulation of government advertising.